NVIDIA GeForce 306.23 WHQL Download & Discussion

Windows Vista 7 and 8 drivers are out for grabs.


Download:

• Nvidia GeForce 306.23 WHQL 64-bit
• Nvidia GeForce 306.23 WHQL 32-bit

The new NVIDIA GeForce 306.23 WHQL drivers are now available to download. An essential upgrade for every GeForce GTX user, the GeForce 306.23 WHQL drivers enable high-quality TXAA anti-aliasing on GTX 600 Series GPUs, improve game performance by up to 17% on all GeForce 400, 500, and 600 Series GPUs, enhance seven top titles with NVIDIA Control Panel MSAA and Ambient Occlusion profiles, improve the overall user experience for all GPU users, and add SLI and 3D Vision profiles for new releases and upcoming titles, including Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, Dishonored, End of Nations, F1 2012, Guild Wars 2, Max Payne 3, Orcs Must Die! 2, PlanetSide 2, Sleeping Dogs, The Secret World, The Walking Dead, Torchlight II, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria.

Furthermore, the GeForce 306.23 WHQL drivers ensure maximum GPU compatibility in the highly-anticipated Borderlands 2, and will update your PhysX software to version 9.12.0604, maximizing performance when the impressive hardware-accelerated PhysX effects are enabled. Similarly, the GeForce 306.23 WHQL drivers ensure maximum compatibility in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, and maximize performance when utilizing immersive multi-monitor display modes.
GeForce 600 Series
GeForce GTX 690, GeForce GTX 680, GeForce GTX 670, GeForce GTX 660 Ti, GeForce GT 645, GeForce GT 640, GeForce GT 630, GeForce GT 620, GeForce GT 610, GeForce 605

GeForce 500 Series
GeForce GTX 590, GeForce GTX 580, GeForce GTX 570, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, GeForce GTX 560 SE, GeForce GTX 560, GeForce GTX 555, GeForce GTX 550 Ti, GeForce GT 545, GeForce GT 530, GeForce GT 520, GeForce 510

GeForce 400 Series
GeForce GTX 480, GeForce GTS 450, GeForce GT 440, GeForce GT 430, GeForce GT 420, GeForce 405

GeForce 300 Series
GeForce GT 340, GeForce GT 330, GeForce GT 320, GeForce 315, GeForce 310

GeForce 200 Series
GeForce GTX 295, GeForce GTX 285, GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTS 250, GeForce GTS 240, GeForce GT 230, GeForce GT 240, GeForce GT 220, GeForce G210, GeForce 210, GeForce 205

GeForce 100 Series
GeForce GT 140, GeForce GT 130, GeForce GT 120, GeForce G100

GeForce 9 Series
GeForce 9800 GX2, GeForce 9500 GS, GeForce 9400 GT, GeForce 9400, GeForce 9300 GS, GeForce 9300 GE, GeForce 9300 SE, GeForce 9300, GeForce 9200, GeForce 9100

GeForce 8 Series
GeForce 8800 Ultra, GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8400 GS, GeForce 8400 SE, GeForce 8400, GeForce 8300 GS, GeForce 8300, GeForce 8200, GeForce 8200 /nForce 730a, GeForce 8100 /nForce 720a

GeForce 7 Series
GeForce 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a, GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a, GeForce 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 610i, GeForce 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 620i, GeForce 7100 GS, GeForce 7150 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, GeForce 7300 SE / 7200 GS, GeForce 7300 LE, GeForce 7300 GS, GeForce 7300 GT, GeForce 7350 LE, GeForce 7500 LE, GeForce 7550 LE, GeForce 7600 LE, GeForce 7600 GS, GeForce 7600 GT, GeForce 7650 GS

GeForce 6 Series
GeForce 6100, GeForce 6100 nForce 400, GeForce 6100 nForce 405, GeForce 6100 nForce 420, GeForce 6150, GeForce 6150 LE, GeForce 6150LE / Quadro NVS 210S, GeForce 6150SE nForce 430, GeForce 6200, GeForce 6200 A-LE, GeForce 6200 LE, GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM), GeForce 6200SE TurboCache(TM), GeForce 6250, GeForce 6500, GeForce 6600, GeForce 6600 GT, GeForce 6600 LE, GeForce 6600 VE, GeForce 6610 XL, GeForce 6700 XL

 

Finally about time good job nvidia!

 

Nevermind. :nerd:

 

Ah well :sleep:, they're still older then 305.53 & 305.67..


306.02: r304_70-80
306.23: r304_70-93



About older physx installer, i think there is a issue with the newer separate installer, some said it cause issues by few physx HW based games.. Im not sure 100% though.

 

Edited my other post lol.

 

Any relevant changes from 306.02? Downsampling's not fixed yet I assume

/e: Release Notes

 

:cussing:Guild Wars 2 still plays like sh!t. :cussing:

 

nice 3DMark 11 score went from 8352 to 8746

 

I've been waiting for these so thanks for the heads up.

It does annoy me though how NVIDIA keep mentioning TXAA in the release notes as SIX months after the release of the GTX 680, only ONE game actually uses it (The Secret World which I'm not interested in) and one other, Borderlands 2, has dropped it meaning that I'm not likely to see it in use for myself for the forseeable future. I really don't know why they bothered unless they intend adding it to the driver at some point as an forceable option like FXAA.

 

Just because 306.xx drivers are older doesn't mean they don't contain new fixes or improvements for games as those 305.xx developer drivers are more focused on OpenGL 4.3. Those drivers are from a different branch and as I've found from other drivers that seemed newer they often don't contain the newer fixes/improvements anyway from the main branch. I believe at some point they usually merge them, meaning that we'll get a driver with both OpenGL 4.3 and the new games fixes/improvements.

 

Guild Wars 2 is heavily CPU-bound, meaning it benefits more from CPU power than GPU power. As I said on GF.com earlier (http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/ar...6-23-whql-drivers-released/#comment-649045916), there was little time between the release of 306.02 beta and the finalizing of this driver, so we've had little opportunity to investigate ways to improve performance and fix the Ambient Occlusion profile. Rest assured, we will continue to look at ways of improving the end-user experience in the game.

 

Is that also the case with Metro2033 or is it just an unoptimized PoS.
In the benchmark there's only like 60% GPU usage or so >.>

 

@ AndyB - I appreciate the response but Guild Wars 2 has been out over a week now and most people tend to play these game heavily in their first few weeks so optimized drivers are more useful then rather than months down the line. One of the main reasons I've always preferred NVIDIA graphics cards over ATI/AMD ones is that your drivers are usually more up to date and support newer games, sometimes even before they are released. No-one expects that kind of support for every single game but for major releases, including Guild Wars 2 (a game you've been promoting on your GeForce.com site), it would be nice.

Have you ever considered releasing hotfix drivers that focus on optimizing the drivers for one game so that the drivers can be released sooner? A beta or hotfix driver would be appreciated by people playing Guild Wars 2 I'm sure then you can add the improvements to the next certified driver.

 

So this drivers are the same as 306.02 beta drivers yes?

 

Thanks for the reply.

Metro2033 is just an unoptimized PoS.

 

I was wondering that myself. I would say that these are 99.5% the same as the v306.02 betas, only with a certification and possibly a few minor fixes/tweaks that weren't ready at the time the betas were released. It would be nice to have release notes that actually noted the changes from the last beta though rather than the last certified driver as NVIDIA normally do.

Also, while AndyB is posting on this site, is there any chance that NVIDIA can add proper release notes for the profile updates that sometimes occur through the NVIDIA Updater tool? AMD do this for this their Catalyst Application Profiles so I don't see why NVIDIA can't as well. It doesn't have to be detailed; just a list of the games that had been added/updated along with a brief description similar to how you list them on the driver release page.

 

The most recent report I received from the driver team indicated that they need a larger sample size to identify possible optimizations. Therefore, if you, or anyone else has issues in Guild Wars 2, please submit as much information as possible to http://surveys.nvidia.com/index.jsp?pi=6e7ea6bb4a02641fa8f07694a40f8ac6 This includes things like your location in the game, your dxdiag, what software you're using at the same time as the game, and so on and so forth.

Guild Wars 2 is an important and popular game and we will continue to investigate possible optimizations, but like Skyrim I imagine the biggest improvement will come from a game update that improves the CPU side of things (if you're unfamiliar with the Skyrim example, a patch improved performance by up to 25% by optimizing CPU-related code).

Yes, these are very similar to 306.02. The main changes are compatibility for 680M, 660 and 650, new PhysX software for Borderlands 2, and other behind-the-scenes things for it and WoW: MoP.

RE: Profiles, what exactly are you looking for? A list of what was released through NV Update, the date of that release, and what version of the profile it is? And then something in the notes saying whether the profiles in the driver are the same as the NVU ones, or newer?

 

Nvidia can't magically fix a CPU bound engine, a fix has to come from Arena Net themself.
Something thar helps thou, is that CPU balancer app which PillMonster mentioned a few times, evens out the core load when gw2.exe is added as a game.
Besides that, it is up to ArenaNet to a
fix the gtx6xx detection, to avoid downclocking, althou, that could be done driver side too, but woul give some pretty heavy polling on your system.

 

AndyB, what's wrong with PhysX engine 0613?